There is a lot of forests to kill you. The Yugoslavs will come, and they know how much you love your girlfriend, and they will rape her in front of you.” It was the first in a long record of threats with which a gang of usurers harassed and frightened a business person from Monforte de Lemos (Lugo) in 2009 after the expiration term of the loan with interest that had been made to him. For eight long days, both the victim and his family were subjected to a mockery that ended with the gang members arrested by the Police. The Prosecutor’s Office, which appreciates in the facts crimes of extortion, kidnapping, injuries, and threats, asks for them a sentence of nine to fifteen years in prison in the trial held next week in the Provincial Court of Lugo.
As detailed in the indictment, the events occurred when the man, who ran a pub and was then going through a “bad economic streak,” went in 2008 to two lenders, known in the area as “the Murcians,” to request a credit of 12,000 euros. The creditors agreed, setting March 13 of the following year as the return date and setting an additional 25 percent interest on the sum. Not having the money on the due date, the debtor and his partner began to receive pressure and threats through calls and text messages, which is why they decided to hide and turn off their mobile phones.
Not finding them, the lenders went to the house where the accused’s mother and sister lived, explaining the situation to them and warning them that, if they reported them, their grandson and nephew (the victim’s son) would be in danger. They would go with him to the boarding school where he was studying. This operation was repeated for several days, threatening them with death and mutilation.
Panicked, the victim’s sister begged him to return to Monforte, to which he agreed. It was then that, after explaining that he could not bear the money, the loan sharks took him to a secluded area in the countryside and informed him that the debt had already amounted to 150,000 euros. Immediately afterward, they beat him up and demanded the transfer of his sister’s car, valued at 4,770 euros.
For the next three days, the defendants held the victim between March 18 and 21, taking him to the pubs he frequented and forcing him to sleep in motels. At that time, the threats did not stop: “If you do not pay what you owe, we will liquidate all of you; we are going to prostitute your sister in Morocco and rape your wife, “they even told him.
Finally, the lenders were arrested outside one of the pubs on March 21, after their relatives filed a complaint about insulin.
